In 1777, King Jeongjo was beginning his reign as a reformer in the Joseon Dynasty. His rule of 24 years was too short to make any great improvement, but his efforts have been praised; he also had a premonition of some dark times in Korea's future. In the Pastoral Bulletin for priests, we have this introduction to history and the writer's thoughts on the beginnings of Christianity in Korea.
These years in history were filled with turmoil. In China the rule of Emperor Qianlong and expansion, but also saw the beginning of decline. In England, we had the industrial revolution; France was ripe for the cultural revolution, and the new country of the States was proclaiming independence. We were surrounded by war.
It was the year of 1777 in winter that young scholars met together at a Buddhist Temple in Yeoju Province to study about Catholicism from books they received from China. They came from a distance, ragged, but with a gleam in their eyes.
In a time of upheaval, the learned are looking for answers. Confucianism influenced them to study ways to make sense of what was going on in the world. The books they possessed were from the West and translated into Chinese, and some of them had to do with Catholicism. With the meetings, we have the beginning of the spread of Christianity without the help of clergy: a story with which we are familiar..
These scholars found in Catholicism a new light. They did not see Catholicism as something to change society but a frightful new teaching. An example is Paul, Yun Ji-chung. When his
mother died he
performed the funeral ceremony according to the Catholic rite which was the wish of his mother, instead of
the Confucian rite, and he burned the ancestral tablets. Not to follow the Confucian customs on the occasion of coming of age, marriage, funeral, and ancestor worship was asking for trouble.
Refusal to go along with what society was asking was tantamount to attempting to overthrow the society, a way of acting that was seen as revolutionary. You were putting your life on the line. This was no exaggeration, and for 100 years we had the persecution that gave us about 10 thousand martyrs.
What is the face of Catholicism now in Korea? Are we showing society a new road to follow? Or is it rather the church itself doesn't know what to do? Jesus said that he was the way the truth and life, and only through him can we go to the father.
Do we think we can be Christians by going in search of money and power? Do we think that more knowledge will get us to our goal as Christians? He concludes that we are intoxicated with our power.
Two people, side by side, were using the escalator and bickering. The man on the right, "Let those who are busy go on their way, move aside a little," addressing the woman who was blocking the left lane of the escalator." "Because of the fear of accidents we are not to make a commotion," she responded. The man, "Heavens, do you know how busy the young people are these days, and you are blocking the way. Do You think that if we all moved to the right the machinery would breakdown?" The woman did not give answer, and when they arrived at the floor level she went off quickly.
These are the kinds of scenes that we often witness. We have the conservative and the progressive.The one that is busy with the present and the one who is thinking of the future, A columnist in the Catholic Times reminds us of this fact of life. In this example we would be on the side of the man but this is not always so easy to decide.
For seventy years we had the forces who were pushing: "let us live better" and those who screamed: "let's get rid of the dictator". However, both have been realized: we have a better life and we have a working democracy, and yet we have the infighting. We should be able to give praise and understanding for what has been accomplished but no, we continue to discount and disparage the other.
Within the church the situation is the same: each group is bringing in arguments that support their position, and only look for points that will bolster their position. Both positions have some truth and deficiency.
Jesus when he selected his first group of intimate followers, wanted a varied group with different backgrounds and temperaments. He had the conservatives and the progressives among the apostles, both united in their allegiance to Jesus.
Truth should always be the goal. However, truth has different meanings for different people. Conservative/liberal dichotomy is popular but when we reduce it to 'black-and-white' and 'either-or' thinking and forget all the other possibilities we are doing a disservice to truth and ourselves. As Christians these dichotomies make little sense. The transcendentals for us are not just the True, Good and Beautiful but also Oneness.
What is important is the person we are, for that will determine what we see and how we judge. If we are not happy, not at peace, have a troubled conscience, and afflicted spirit we need the humility to acknowledge this reality, and admit to ourselves that it may influence our thinking. When we don't have complete spiritual and psychological health, and this is the reality for most of us, with humility we pursue the truth and refuse to be boxed into thinking that what we say and believe is all there is on the subject, and allow ourselves to listen deeply to the other.
On the spiritual page of the Catholic Times, a priest in his column writes about his trip on the subway to a meeting. Empty seats were few, and he was happy to find one, and enjoy the trip.
At one of the stations two mentally handicapped persons, a down syndrome and a mentally challenged person entered the car and sat opposite him. They were tightly holding their guardian's hand and looking around with a frown on their faces.
Right beside the columnist a woman in her fifties, and a man in his early twenties, were whispering how blessed and thankful it is to have good health. No comparison, but it was easy to surmise the reason for the topic.
Shortly after a woman with her daughter entered and sat beside him and began talking in a very low voice. "Ordinarily, when you meet a person who is handicapped you know what to do, don't you?" asked the mother.
"What is that all about?" answered the daughter.
"When we relate with those who are handicapped, we treat them just like everybody else?"
"That is what they say!" answered the daughter. "Since they have a handicap, however, they need our help. When we have concern for each other than we will find joy, that I know."
They both continued talking to each other like friends. When they were leaving they both with a little nod of the head towards the handicapped, went towards the door. The two handicapped persons without a word, laughing waved their hands in a good-bye salute.
The columnist found what he had just experienced was something rare. Here were two persons seeing the same two handicapped persons and relating in two different ways. Their viewpoints were different and consequently, what they saw was different.
When he got up to leave he winked at the two and they responded with a laugh and the down syndrome individual gave an eye response as coming from an angel.
When he rides the subways he often looks at faces of those riding with him, and reminds himself that the way he judges the person determines what he sees. A healthy viewpoint will determine a healthy vision.
Education is an important work of the Church, and she continually goes in search of ways of doing the job as thoroughly as possible. Workshops and symposiums are an ongoing reality in each diocese and in the country, Catholic papers and magazines treat the subject often because of its importance and recently in the Seoul Diocese was a symposium on character education and the means to achieve it.
In today's world, we are overcome with information but information is not knowledge nor is knowledge wisdom. Catholic schools want to reach the whole person and inspire him to be a self-learner for a life time.
Character education-- education for the whole person-- is composed of autonomy, community, and dignity. All three working together to form the personality of the individual. These words came out of a symposium sponsored by the Korean bishops.
In the keynote address, a priest professor stressed a Christian education has as its goal the formation of a full person, a value system that comes from the gospels, cultivation of the virtues and a spirituality internalized and integrated into the personality.
Another participant mentioned the integration of these values in the life of the teachers. Care has to be taken that they are not overworked so this becomes an unrealistic expectation. Programs for the formation of the teachers to instill these values are necessary.
Another professor explained how this education for the whole person was done in the States, France and Germany. He mentioned the two starting points are the textbook and creative experience. Both need to go together: creativity with others should develop into service. Concern is for the development of each student's temperament, potentiality, interests and sharing with others. Standardization needs to be avoided, and each student needs to find meaning and motivation in their studies. Parents should be involved, and the student's autonomy and responsibility fostered.
The ideal is concern for each student in the educational process. In English, the Latin roots of the word education have great meaning: educare which means to train and mold while educere means to lead out, the combination of both should be the aim of education from kindergarten to university. The worry in Korea is that education will have the market as the goal and directed to qualifications and a means of making money.
In private discussion religion is often considered of little value. What is the need to pray? Nothing is achieved, and a persons' thinking powers are exhausted; a reason Karl Marx said religion was the opium of the people. One of the columnists who writes in the Peace Weekly on questions received from the readers, responds using the question: What is the spiritual psychological answer to religion is the opium of the people?
Pseudo religious' cults do great harm to a person's family and life. That is a fact. But to say this about all religions is like the blind man touching the elephant's legs and saying he knows what an elephant is--not very wise.
Even when prayer is not answered it has an importance in itself. In the evolution of man we developed from the reptile, to mammal to primate. When our hearts are not on the spiritual and magnanimous, we regress to an earlier stage of our development. When we can't control our thinking we are opening ourselves up to sickness of the spirit.
Our ancestors when a person did not act like a human they would say they were no better than an animal. They were alluding unknowingly to something that was true. We can regress to an earlier stage of our evolution that is less than human.
Prayer is something only humans can do and a sign of our humanity. When we pray we are lifting up our eyes to the heavens and are aware that God is looking at us because we are receptive, disciplining and cultivating ourselves. We can deceive others and end up not living like humans.
The columnist gives the second rebut to the opiate of the people. Sick people in great pain are given relief by the drug. Prayer, not like opium, has no side-effects, and many find it helpful. In prayer we express our faith, hope, and the hardships of life, the despondency, anxiety and conflict in our hearts are lightened and often healing comes.
Myanmar is a country that has suffered much at the hands of its leaders and with great poverty. Citizens have little of this world's goods but because of their Buddhist understanding of life they have one of the highest happiness indexes in the world. Unable to change what causes them suffering they do not fall apart or get mentally sick; their Buddhist devotion is a gift they have received and enables them to overcome their difficulties. This witnessing to the results of religion, just can't be shrugged off by condemning it as an opiate.
With their Buddhist faith the citizens are living the gospel life. They share, have concern for one another, they are poor and yet rich in what is important. On a trip when a person has an accident they stay with the person until what was intended is accomplished. We should reflect on what it is that makes us a developed country and it should fill us with shame.
We can't emphasize too much the importance that religion has in our lives. The Bible is not a book we use only within the temple but should be our directory for our daily lives. At present we determine development by income; a better standard for a truly developed country would be one judged with a happiness index. Christians would understand this as followers of the gospel index for development.
Catholic bishops are meeting this month to find ways of helping families and couples to overcome the many problems they face. Much in our society is not helpful in making the marriage commitment strong. Intimacy makes for strong bonds between husband and wife, and sexuality is important but there are many other forms of intimacy that help to make for a strong union that will help overcome the obstacles in the way of a happy and fulfilling life. Divorce is a fact of present day marriages, and we are far from understanding the harm to society in the aftermath of this sad reality.
Bride and groom on their wedding day promise to be faithful to one another: " I promise to be true to you in good time and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life." The problems that are present in many cases are varied and many: finances, disillusionment, domestic violence, infidelity, personality differences and hundreds of other difficulties.
The church has with many of its programs helped couples and families: Marriage Encounter, programs for the engaged, Retrouvailles weekends, and many other programs are available; outside the church, we also have help. However, as with all programs, education, examples: Whatever is received is received in the manner of the receiver.
Maturity of the couple is a requisite for marriage. In our society, how many are mature, and have enough natural virtue to live intimately with another person in a healthy matrimonial bond is a question that needs to be answered, and ways to prepare programs for our young people to achieve this basic maturity. Our educational system is of little help.
In one of our diocesan bulletins, the question of intimacy was presented to the readers. When the understanding of intimacy is different for each of the couples, we will have problems in marriage. This is an area where hopefully they will dialog long and deep to reach a common understanding of what they expect from each other.
Intimacy requires: deep emotional involvement, respect and understanding of each other, meeting of mind and heart, sexual intimacy. One definition is not sufficient to include all that is meant by intimacy. Many are the facets of intimacy, and to have a black-and-white understanding of what is happening limits the possibilities.
The
bulletin mentions many of the ways this intimacy is seen:
raising a family, working together spiritually, using leisure time
together to develop their common interests, talents and artistic
pursuits, overcoming crises together, emotional intimacy and sexuality.
In conclusion, the writer hopes that his married readers will discuss these topics deeply and come to a common clear understanding of what intimacy means for them, and enable both to work together to achieve this intimacy.
Last month, a picture of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi was seen by the whole world lying on the shore of a beach in Turkey as if sleeping. He was one of the many who fleeing their home country by boat, drowned, when the boat sank, and the boy's body washed ashore.
A number of articles in the Peace Weekly treat this issue, and mention the difficulties of receiving refugee status in Korea. A family who has lived in Korea for the last 3, and half years has been asking for refugee status but was refused, and the chances are slight of a change in the future.
The refugee center has reported that those who have asked for refugee status less than 5 % have been granted, which is one of the lowest in the OECD. According to the UN Refugee Agency in 2010, the rate of refugee acceptance is 38% worldwide.
Over 4 million refugees have left Syria. One article mentions the three groups fighting each other: Government forces, Islamic State, and other opposition groups. All fighting each other and the people suffer and seek ways to leave. Pope Francis has mentioned the number of refugees are as at the time of the Second World War.
After July 1st 2013 with the Refugee Law, Korea has increased the number of refugees coming into the country. For political and religious reasons, they are leaving Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, Nigeria, Uganda, China, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Bangladesh. From 1994 when Korea accepted the agreement on refugees, 12,208 have applied and up until July 31 of this year, only 522 have been accepted. Because of the strictness used in determining their status, the numbers are low. There are those that are asking the government to be an example to other nations in the number they accept.
Pope Francis after becoming pope made his first visit outside the mainland, to the island of Lampadusa (a small island closer to Africa than Italy, where the refugees go before arriving in Europe) showing concern for those leaving their countries. "We have lost a sense of brotherly responsibility," he said, and "have forgotten how to cry" for the suffering and those dying in leaving their countries.
The National Council of Churches of Korea a Protestant group has asked all the members to pray for the Syrian refugees and raised money to help them. There are only two citizen groups that are non-profit groups, which are helping the refugees. One article concludes with the hope the government and the different groups in society will take an interest in the plight of these refugees.
